Case studies
Kriya Capital Limited
This Asian start up fund recognised the importance of automating key processes with an intuitive system, allowing staff to focus on their core tasks: making the best investment decisions.
Background
When boutique hedge fund start-up Kriya Capital was preparing for its debut in February 2010, a key requirement was to select the right portfolio management and fund accounting system to support its equities funds. Kriya Capital runs two long/short funds with a primary focus on Asian markets including Japan, Hong Kong and China. With trade volumes at around 30-40 transactions per day Kriya sought an agile solution that was customisable and easy to implement yet scalable to ensure that as the funds grew over time, the technology would be able to keep pace.
Challenge
Kriya was quick to recognise the importance of automating its key business processes with a user-friendly, intuitive system that would allow staff to focus on their core tasks: making the best investment decisions for their clients. The eventual solution not only needed to integrate seamlessly with its proprietary middle- and back-office systems and third-party EMS and import trade systems; it also needed to be deployed in the shortest possible timeframe.
Above all, Kriya was looking for a system that required minimal investment in terms of both finance and support resources, saving vital capital during the start-up stage and freeing up its key people to concentrate on managing and investing client money.
Solution
Alice Tse, Operations Manager at Kriya, describes how the firm initially came to approach Tradar: “We knew Tradar had a long and trusted track record in our space and already worked with several clients in the Asia-Pacific region that run funds with a similar strategy to ours. This removed some of the worry often associated with implementing a new system.” The intuitive nature of the system, low total cost of ownership and level of service Kriya received were also some of the main influencing factors in the decision to bring Tradar’s technology on board.
Tradar’s portfolio management and fund accounting solution, Insight, had a number of attractions for Kriya. Arti Hatzirodos, Managing Director from Tradar elaborates: “As well as giving Kriya solid support for making efficient investment decisions, Insight gave the team a real-time overview of key trade, position, performance and exposure data for the fund. The ability to offer customised reporting was another attractive feature for Kriya, as was straight-through-processing with other fund service providers.”
Tse continues: “Tradar really pulled out all the stops to get us up and running as quickly as possible, completing the implementation in just two weeks. In that short timeframe, all internal users were fully and competently trained and up to speed. Crucially, the software had also been seamlessly integrated with our in-house and third-party systems. Furthermore, the simplicity of Tradar’s solution relative to comparable systems enhanced its appeal for us, particularly when it comes to key operational processes such as exporting prime brokerage reports and importing trade data to carry out reconciliations.”
The Tradar solution was not only implemented within impressive time scales, it was also fully customised to meet the needs of Kriya. The key areas of customisation centred around reports and calculations. The adaptability and scalability of the solution enables Tradar to offer clients exactly what they need without a hefty development process because of the easy to use drag and drop reporting capabilities of the software.
Easy access to intensive support was another top priority for Kriya at the early stages of its development. Alice Tse comments: “When you call the Tradar help desk, you can expect immediate and responsive top-level service, wherever you are in the world. You get the impression that the team goes out of its way to be helpful – an attitude that can be hard to find among vendors. The support analysts are quick to understand and solve a problem if it arises, and always keep us fully briefed on the status of any issues.”
Benefits
Alice Tse believes the relationship with Tradar has gone from strength to strength since they began working together: “The great thing is that the relationship is never static. As our business grows, Tradar is always working to developing innovative solutions that meet our changing needs.”
“At the start of the implementation, we had a particular interest in compliance functionality. Tradar listened to us very carefully and worked closely with us in terms of discussing and developing the additional functionality we were hoping to see from the product – they really did take our demands and advice into the heart of their development considerations.”
Tradar’s Arti Hatzirodos emphasises that the benefits of this project were not restricted to Kriya alone. “This enhanced level of functionality will soon be accessible to all of our clients, who are sharpening their focus on compliance due to upcoming regulatory changes and the increasing popularity of UCITS funds. The end result of this process, which became almost consultative in nature, was that the compliance upgrade will be showcased in the Insight 4.0™ release, which is going live this summer.”
Alice Tse sums up why Tradar was the obvious choice for them: “For Kriya as a start-up fund, Insight’s accessible and intuitive system has played a particularly invaluable role in supporting our most fundamental business processes. Their system involves minimal investment from us in either financial or administrative terms, but we have always felt fully involved when it comes to the customisation and development of new functionality that can improve the way we carry out our investment business. It is this progressive, collaborative approach along with their uncompromising client service that really singles out Tradar’s offering from that of its peers.”